


Backseat Serenade

by Shoeless_Sam



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I don't think I said either way, M/M, One Shot, but could be more idk, or not modern setting?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 19:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21343651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shoeless_Sam/pseuds/Shoeless_Sam
Summary: Time can change a lot things, but not love.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	Backseat Serenade

**Author's Note:**

> I highly recommend to listen to Backseat Serenade while reading this since it's low-key based off of it :)

It was the first day of third grade when Richie first saw him. Sitting on the bus, with a bright yellow backpack and a funny looking blue thing in his hand. A thing that later he learned to be an inhaler.

Eddie Kaspbrak.

Way too boring for Richie, even then. But with the right amount of teasing, Eddie came alive. He would banter back and hit Richie. No one had been able to match his personality. Not until Eddie.

They would sit at the back of the bus together. It wasn’t taken as people liked to sit near the front so they can get out sooner.

Every year they would sit together. Then their friend Bill joined. Then Stan. They were an amazing power team. Unstoppable, a little overbearing and annoying, and loyal to each other.

Then sixth grade came. Eddie and Richie were messing around with Richie’s skateboard. Eddie couldn’t skate for shit. Richie was trying to teach him. A simple kick-flip. 

Eddie did land it. On his arm. Broken.

After that Sonia Kaspbrak pulled Eddie out of school. All communication forbidden.

Richie would sneak in Eddie’s window. After a month Eddie stopped him. If his mom found out he wouldn’t even live in their small town anymore. Eddie reasoned with his logic and said that then he wouldn’t be able to find him when they were 18. Eddie promised… they’d see each other again.

But that was bullshit.

Richie hadn’t seen Eddie since sixth grade. Soon after Eddie left, so did Stan and Bill. They weren’t them anymore. Richie pretended not to care.

He found new friends.

Beverly. She was called a slut and she was a druggie and had a shit dad. But she wouldn’t leave. She didn’t have anyone else. And her and Richie got along good, better than he would have expected.

Mike. Strong and buff. He was homeschooled but transferred for high school. A little on the quiet side but not afraid to get wild.

The last change was Richie himself. He was always a loud person, too overbearing, never quite fitting in. So he stopped caring. Threw a leather jacket over his hawaiian shirts, changed his khaki-ish shorts for tight ripped jeans, and stopped caring about keeping his mouth shut. Even in class.

It worked well.

Until the first day of junior year.

Richie arrived to the bus, high fiving a senior on his way back. Even though Eddie had moved away, he still always sat in the back.

He saw Bev and Mike’s backs, obviously talking to someone. Or someones. God, he hoped someone hadn’t taken their spots.

“What’s up Losers?” Richie said, throwing his arms around his friends. “Who you talking to?” He didn’t bother looking at who it was. It was probably some freshman, he reasoned.

“Someone’s in our seats,” Mike commented. “Says they’re his.”

“Classic freshie,” Bev noted. So they were a freshman, then.

“I. Am. Not. A. Freshman,” the not-freshman said. Richie’s eyes automatically darted to the voice, like he knew it. But he couldn’t.

It was a boy. A small boy. That’s why Mike and Bev had assumed he was a freshie. It made sense.

His head was down, but Richie could tell his ears were pink.

“Why d’you think these are your seats, not-freshman?” Richie asked, watching. He couldn’t see the boy’s face. Shame. But he watched his hands wring together, creep towards his pant’s pocket. 

It almost reminded Richie of Eddie, but he pushed it down. He didn’t think about Eddie anymore.

“Don’t give me nicknames. And because I rode these buses a long time ago.”

“You a senior?” Richie laughed out. He couldn’t be. Not that little. “Also, no shit. Everyone in this town has rode these buses. I laid claim long ago, new kid.”

“I told you not to call me anything like that.” The boy’s ears were getting brighter.

“Don’t mess with him too much, Trashmouth,” Bev warned. Yeah they had started it, but Richie messed with people too much.

“Trashmouth?” the boy asked.

“What you never heard of him? Or have you? Either way could be bad,” Mike said. It was mostly to himself.

“I… it must be someone else. I knew a Trashmouth once.”

That caught Richie’s attention. He took his hands from around his friends’ shoulders to rest them on his knees. He still wasn’t eye level with the boy. Damn long legs.

“Huh. Tell me more about this Trashmouth, cause we  _ so _ asked for your life story.” He was being annoying. He knew he was.

But like he decided long ago. He didn’t care. This boy pushed his nerves and he wanted to push back.

“You know what?” the boy huffed. His face was still down. “I don’t need this shit. Maybe I was just trying to bond? Or reality, I’m thinking of a friend I’m trying to find. In fact, I shouldn’t waste time talking to the likes of you. So if you’d excuse me--”

The boy started shuffling with his bag. Richie stood up so he could leave them. Then the boy stood up.

“Fuck you,” the boy shouted in Richie’s face. His face was bright red and only grew hotter.

It was Eddie. Eddie Kaspbrak.

“Fuck you!” Eddie shouted again, but Richie could see the fire behind his eyes. The fire that meant he was playing.

Richie couldn’t stop the huge grin spreading on his face.

“Fuck you,” Eddie said for a third time, dissolving in breathy laughs.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You want all of this.” 

Eddie went to answer but coughed instead. Richie knew it was an asthma attack. Probably from getting excited.

Richie pulled out an inhaler he had in his backpack from sixth grade. He could never toss it away. It was the last thing he had of Eddie.

He handed it to Eddie like it was nothing. “You might need this.” Eddie nodded, going to use it immediately.

“What the fuck is going on?” Bev asked. Right, other people were here.

“I am as confused as you are Bev,” Mike agreed.

Richie tossed an arm around Eddie. Still as short as he remembered.

Eddie handed the inhaler back to him. “That tastes like battery acid.”

“No shit, it’s years old.” Then Richie turns to his friend. “This little troll who invaded our territory is Eddie Kaspbrak. A little shit who I love more than anything.”

“Rude,” Eddie told him. “But yeah, I’m Eddie.”

“Or Eds. Or Spaghetti.”

“Or Eddie.”

“We’ve known each other since 3rd grade… until some things happened. Time passed.”

“Speaking of which,” Eddie said suddenly. “What the fuck happened, Rich? You look different. Good different but…”

Richie laughs. Eddie’s looking for the Hawaiian shirt and glasses. Glasses he refused to wear no matter how much he needed them.

Richie shrugs off his leather jacket revealing the bright pattern underneath. He pulls out his glasses from his backpack.

“That was hiding under there this whole time?” Mike asks.

“Damn,” Eddie says, lost in his head for a moment. “Just as ugly as I remember.”

“Oh so funny, Eddos. I’m handsome, you’re just broken from the time spent away from me.”

“Hey, also where are Stan and Bill?”

“That’s complicated. We’ll find them. Don’t worry.”

“Okay. We better.”

“Promise. Until then, let’s make up for lost time.”

Eddie nods sympathetically. Richie dips him into a soft kiss. Eddie squeaks out of surprise. “I’m so glad I kept my promise.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I turned this fanfic into a longer story, so if you're interested you can check it out [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21504970/chapters/51256225)


End file.
